Sister Jeannine Gramick, Co-Founder of New Ways Ministry, Named “Newsmaker of 2023”
Pope Francis with Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, along with New Ways Ministry staff members (from left) Matthew Myers, Francis DeBernardo, and Robert Shine
Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SL, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, has been named “Newsmaker of 2023” by the National Catholic Reporter, whose year-end review highlighted Catholics on the margins.
Gramick’s designation by NCR was announced yesterday in an editorial, noting that in 2023 there was an “extraordinary, if tentative, movement in one area in particular: how the Catholic Church includes and ministers to its LGBTQ members.” Developments like Pope Francis condemning criminalization laws or being open to blessing queer couples “would have once seemed the work of a novelist untethered from reality.” NCR’s editorial continuwes:
“But over the past five decades of American Catholic experience, perhaps no single person has had the kind of impact for our LGBTQ community members as Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick.
“Ever since launching New Ways Ministry with the late Salvatorian Fr. Robert Nugent in 1977, she has been a tireless, persistent and effective advocate. She has borne the scars of abuse by church authorities with uncommon dignity.
“In 1999, when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, prohibited her and Nugent from any pastoral work with LGBTQ persons, Gramick kept at it quietly, and went to Rome to see about having that order reversed.
“When the Vatican in 2000 pressured Gramick’s first religious congregation, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, to order her to cease speaking publicly about her LGBTQ ministry, she simply moved to another congregation, and, again, kept going.
“Tireless is the word, certainly. Another descriptor would be successful. Another, perhaps more important, would be cunning. Sensing a change in Roman winds, Gramick and her New Ways colleagues started a direct correspondence with Francis in early 2021.
“Stunningly, the pope wrote back. He called Gramick ‘a valiant woman,’ who had suffered for her ministry. He also thanked the group as a whole for their ‘neighborly work.’
“This October, Francis and Gramick met in person at the Vatican, for a historic 50-minute encounter at the pope’s residence. Ever the practitioner of persistent relationship-building, Gramick made sure to alter the arrangement of the room, in order to slide her chair a little closer to the pope’s.
“We cannot say exactly what has made Francis more open and aware this year to the needs of LGBTQ Catholics. But certainly, that sister scooching her chair forward has had an outsized impact. For her 50 years of successful advocacy, ministry and influence, Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick is NCR’s Newsmaker of 2023.”
NCR’s editorial briefly lauds other U.S. LGBTQ+ advocates, like Juan Carlos Cruz, an abuse survivor and confidante of the pope; Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry; Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA; and Father James Martin, SJ, ofOutreach for their committed work. The combined efforts of LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies during the age of Pope Francis has meant, per the editorial, that “The church of 2023 is certainly not the church of 2013.”
In a separate column, NCR publisher Joe Ferullo and environment editor Stephanie Clary explain a bit about how the newspaper came to chose Gramick as its newsmaker of the year. They describe 2023 as “the year that people and issues on the Catholic margins took center stage”—particularly during October’s General Assembly of the Synod. Ferullo and Clary write:
“No doubt, the presence of more voices within the synod hall challenged those who’ve been sheltered by their smaller, soundproof tents — none so much as the witness of LGBTQ Catholics and their advocates and allies. . .Incremental change sometimes feels small and unnoteworthy, but because of the courageous and important contributions of women, laity and LGBTQ Catholics in the synod assembly, any one of these groups could have been named newsmakers.
“Much of this progress toward the common good and radical inclusion made in 2023 came with the support of Pope Francis (who could always be named a newsmaker, though we like to pick a U.S. Catholic). We ultimately agreed on Loretto Sr. Jeannine Gramick as NCR’s 2023 Newsmaker of the Year. She devoted years of advocacy and suffered years of adversity in her LGBTQ ministry. She was for far too long a lonely voice calling out into a void. But then all her efforts were recognized by Francis himself this past October, when Gramick was granted a headline-making one-on-one meeting with the pontiff.
“In a church always on alert for miracles among us, that moment certainly qualified. She was heard.”
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, December 15, 2023
Sister Jeannine is nothing less than a saint for our LGBTQ+ community and the Church. She looks fear and rejection and threat in the face and with faith and hope and a strength beyond her own strides into it. Full of grace! Thank you, Sister Jeannine!
What an honor for Sr. Jeanine Gramick and her 50 years of service to the GLBTQ l + people. God bless you Jeanine. I’m so proud of you and grateful to you for your ministry.
Congratulations Sr. Jeannine for being named “Newsmaker of 2023” by NCR. They made a wise choice so richly deserved. I am grateful for your dedication never to back down. Love and many Blessings this Holiday Season and in 2024.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Surely now the LCWR will have the courage to honor Jeannine!
Congratulations to Sr. Jeannine! She has been a beautiful, steadfast voice in the wilderness for so many years. Her ministry has saved so many lives and has indeed worked to build bridges of understanding amid so much opposition. Much love to you and your NWM staff members!
“Congratulations” alone simply don’t meet the high mark concluding with a meeting and personal discussion with our Pope Francis in Rome. Sister Jeannine’s soft-spoken wisdom about a topic in which she is well versed (and in which she has spent tireless decades of listening and learning and sharing that learning) brought about an enlightenment that is sorely needed. It was “the little chair that could.” God bless you and your team at New Ways Ministry for your steadfastness. Wishing you all a blessed and beautiful Christmas. Sincerely……
Sister Jeannine,
Thank you very much, and congratulations!